No need to wait. You can trade with your money however you want regardless of the account it is in, as long as it is not tied up in margin on another trade.

Also a happy IB customer that swing trades futures and tinkers with options when I have gambling fever. From what you described, it sounds as if IB would be fine for your purposes.

My only experience with customer service was on a trade related matter several years back, and it was handled quickly and correctly. I believe it was closing a position when I had a major computer failure. But I would agree that IB expects you to know what you are doing. Customer service won't hold your hand, but they do have good documentation and a bunch of webinars and educational stuff like that...however I don't know the quality of said educational material.

Anyways, I have not come across any reason that swing traders should not choose IB during my 6 years with them. You can even yield enhance and let the stock you buy get borrowed.

They cancel the other one correctly.

They don't guarantee it because IB (unlike a bucket shop) will let you place the OCO so close together that they can both get hit before IB's server can cancel the other half. But if you don't do that then they have been very consistent.


From my last post in case BM misses it: Answering BM's question.

True data is called 5 second data by IB. In answer to the problem that their live data doesn't necessarily catch all prices (its one price per 100ms) they created a new data feed that supplies the true OHLCV for the 5 second period at the end of each 5 second period.

With Sierra Chart the TD feed can be used to correct any errors in the live feed. That way you get prices instantaneously (well, within 100ms) but they are corrected for any missing ticks as each 5 second true data packet arrives. IB seem to do the same with their charting.

Really? They said they do not guarantee cancellation of the OCO?
I am going to do swing trades so I will place the two sides relatively far away. ES for example, at least 20 points away. But if the market gets volatile (Remember the flash crash in 2010?), then it is still possible for this to happen. If they do not have statements like, if you place the two sides at least xxx points apart then we will not guarantee cancellation of the other side, then it is still too dangerous for me. One bad trade can wipe my life time's cumulative profits out.

Hi, it is highly unlikely you will get guarantees like this from any brokerage. I'd be surprised if their liability insurers would allow it for a start.

I can tell you this though I do swing trade futures through IB and have been doing so for awhile. I've also been swing trading stocks for much longer and use TD Ameritrade, IB and lightspeed for my stock and option portfolio.

I would rate IB superior than the others in terms of product offering, execution and fee structure. I have never had an issue with OCO cancellation, not once. Having said that my stops and targets are never close. The biggest weakness with IB is their data feed and I use another for that.

As an additional piece of information I only use TD for longer term low $ amount shares. If you are trading shares for $1 you are better off using TD and if you are trading $100 shares use IB. However the slippage on TD is atrocious so limit orders are recommended.

It is important to look at the bigger picture on this type of thing in my opinion. Where will your funds be the safest? For a start IB is a publicly listed company which has more stringent regulatory and reporting requirements. I feel much more secure in this environment than some small brokerage with a handful of staff. Of course Ib can go bankrupt but normally you have a pretty good idea when this will happen with slide in the stock price.

You are much more likely to get better controls and less likely to get a "Bernie Madeoff". At least if I want to look at the financial condition of IB I can pick up an annual report. These other outfits report a one line on a disclosure statement.

You also read people on this forum raving about the customer service of some these smaller brokers and how they answer the phone on the 5th ring and how IB is useless and is rude etc. If you want hand holding then IB is probably not the best but I'd pick safety over customer service any day.

Like anything, this is not a recommendation for IB just my experience so far. It is up to the individual to do their own due diligence and select the broker that best meets their needs.

Cheers
DJ

Thank you.
I don't think I would need much customer support. I may need some initially to get familiar with the tws interface though.
So for OCO, if one side is executed, are they going to actively check the other side and make sure it is cancelled, and if it is too late to cancel that side, then immediately place a market order to flatten that new position? I think it is reasonable not to guarantee cancellation of the other side, but it is reasonable that they actively check for that, and flatten the new position if it is unfortunately not cancelled successfully. Maybe I need to directly ask IB about that.
For the real time data feed, it costs $10 per month and as many of you said, it is no good. Can I choose not to use that data feed and don't pay the $10, and if I do that, will I at least still see real time bid and ask when I place my order?

I am a happy IB customer for over 6 years. Never had a problem with them. And since they have release the IB Gateway some time ago the integration with MultiCharts is quite good. As many others have already mentioned before the feed is unusable if you use any other bar type than minute or daily.. For this reason I have added IQFeed to the mix.

HTH

I haven been using IB with an advisory account for many years now. I also use(d) Zen-Fire / Dorman, TradeStation,... I am happy with IB besides the data quality. If you go for aggressive hf scalping Zen-Fire / Dorman is the better choice in combination with Ninja Trader.
IB Gateway can be used with NinjaTrader for order execution without disconnects, although it is not officially supported. The accounts cash amounts are only updated on executions.